Health experts have blasted the marketing of vitamins
for children, labelling it as mostly misleading and manipulative and
the products potentially damaging to the children who take them.

Paediatricians, dieticians and health policy experts have told the ABC the advertising targets the parents of healthy children.

They
say the marketing is designed to make parents think their children are
not getting enough vitamins from their diet and it makes unproven claims
about the benefits of vitamin supplements.

The products often
carry no warnings about the risks of taking too many vitamins and
small-print disclaimers on the products are at odds with advertising
aimed at healthy children.

Advertising for Nature's Way's Kidsmart
Complete multivitamins boasts about giving children "the edge" with
vitamins and minerals to support "a healthy growing body".

Cenovis's Vita Fizzies are described as a "yummy, easy way to help top up their vitamin intake".

Emeritus Professor John Dwyer of the Friends of Science in Medicine says the saturation advertising is unnecessary.

"[It]
suggests to parents that their children should be taking vitamins as a
routine part of a healthy lifestyle. That's nonsense. They're not
needed, and an awful lot of money is wasted," he said.

Picky
eaters are rarely vitamin deficient and experts say it is far better to
tackle the problem of a narrow diet by offering different types of food
rather than popping a pill that does nothing for the child.

Vitamin industry says nutrients are essential for child development

The
vitamin industry says it agrees that healthy children do not need
vitamins, but cites research that says about 95 per cent of children do
not eat the recommended amount of vegetables.

"If people don't get enough in their diets it follows that they would need it from another source," he said.

Head
of the Royal Australian College of Physicians' Paediatrics and Child
Health Division, Associate Professor Sue Moloney, says children on
perfectly healthy diets are often given vitamins by parents who assume
they are doing the right thing.

If you're on a healthy diet you don't need supplements, and if
you want vitamins in your child's diet you should get them from food.

Associate Professor Sue Moloney

She says high doses of individual vitamins have led to hospitalisations.

"A
number of vitamins - A, D, E and K - are what we call fat soluble
vitamins, so they can accumulate in the body in high doses and become
toxic," Associate Professor Moloney said.

"So we know that particularly vitamin A can be toxic if taken in high doses."

One child seen by Associate Professor Moloney suffered swelling of the brain caused by vitamin toxicity.

She needed regular lumbar punctures (draining of excess spinal fluid) to bring down the pressure on her brain.

"If
you're on a healthy diet you don't need supplements, and if you want
vitamins in your child's diet you should get them from food," Associate
Professor Moloney said.

"We even rarely need to give it for even very poorly malnourished children in our society."

Health expert says faith in multivitamins may lead to poor diet

Associate
Professor Tim Gill of the Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition,
Exercise & Eating Disorders says children's multivitamins - as
opposed to single dose vitamins - do not do any good but will not cause
any direct harm.

He says the greater risk is more subtle.

"They
may also contribute to a belief that providing a multivitamin then
removes the need for the child to be eating a diet which is well
balanced and contains sufficient fruit, vegetables and other fresh
foods," Associate Professor Gill said.

Dr Schoombie says that is not the fault of the industry.

"That's unfortunate if parents think that supplements are a substitute for a healthy diet because [they are] not," he said.

"I
would like to suggest that those parents do consult with a dietician or
a GP, and say 'this is the situation, what do we do about it?'"